Dirty Silver Spoon
by lilacfumes
Summary: RE-UPLOADED! Lelaina Anderson is the lesser of two angels - compared to her older brothers Blaine and Cooper, she is most certainly the sub-average black sheep of the family. But what happens when she threatens to steal some thunder of her own? R&R!
1. the big switcharoo

**_AN:_ Hi lovelies! This is (obviously) a re-upload of my fanfiction, Dirty Silver Spoon. (My pen name was g00btana, is now lilacfumes.) It got such good rapport the last time, which I must thank you for, I decided to put it back up again and see if I can muster the inspiration to continue with chapter five! It's the same story as before, but the later chapters will obviously include some mention of the infamous Cooper. I would definitely appreciate some overall R&R, thank you!**_  
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_dirty silver spoon_

**chapter one | the big switch-a-roo begins**

"So, just to clarify," a girl with thick, dark hair curling wildly around her shoulders said, leaning against the wrought iron of a four poster bed, "You're about to justify moving from a top-notch boarding school to a public high school for your senior year... _how_, exactly?"

Blaine Anderson pulled his navy and red piped school tie from his neck in a drawn-out, lazy movement while his little sister regarded him with a look of sheer confusion.

"That's the part I haven't figured out yet," he said, popping open the first button of his crisp white shirt, "But I will, trust me."

"Oh, I trust you plenty," Lelaina Anderson said, slapping both hands of the bottom bar of Blaine's bed, "If ever there was a great BS'er, it's you, Blainey-babe. Honestly. Just... I hate to be the voice of crotchety reason here, but you don't think you're taking this a little too far?"

Blaine's dark eyes rolled back into his head and he sighed heavily. Lelaina instantly regretted opening her mouth – a little known fact about Blaine was, if you said the wrong thing, it could instantly turn him sour. This was the first _actual_ conversation they'd had in weeks, since the whole act of going back to school had taken up most of their time. She hated to put her elder brother in a sulk, but she couldn't help but be realistic.

"You mean how seriously do I take this relationship?" Blaine asked, tone serious.

"Well, yeah," Lelaina nodded, "You know as well as I that who you're with when you're seventeen years old most likely _isn't_ going to be who you're with forever."

She could see Blaine pursing his lips. In a swift panic, she interrupted with, "No, no, no! Look, I'm on _your_ side here, I really just think you're going to need more reason than that to sway Mom and Dad."

There was a slight pause, in which the silence was positively pregnant. It made Lelaina's skin crawl.

Finally, Blaine shrugged. "There's nothing for me at Dalton anymore."

Now it was Lelaina's turn to roll her eyes.

"Yep, okay, fine," she said. Letting go of the bed and turning to leave the room, she called, "Don't forget, I need you to drive me to that... thingy at eight, alright?"

"Sounds ambiguous; what's in it for me?"

Lelaina grinned wolfishly. "Brownie points from Daddy."

If you were to ask her, Lelaina Anderson would, by no means admit that it was a pressure living with a brother like Blaine. She'd call him all manner of names – a twerp, a nerd, a total dork. A goody-goody. All of which were true. But she'd never admit how _hard_ it was to live up to the standard that he set.

He was a straight A student. He had perfect attendance. He was the figurehead of the Warblers, which meant he was popular. He was pretty much an all-around nice kid, considering what he'd been through.

Lelaina, however, was so average, she was in danger of sinking to a sub-average level. She was a sophomore at Crawford, Dalton's sister school. Her grades were acceptable, although they sometimes fluctuated. She'd been caught bunking off school a couple of times, and was also a master of the 'faux-sickness' routine. Something most significant about her scholastic reputation was she had no friends. Not a one.

The other girls knew her because of her brother's notoriety. He was dreamy, but played for the other team. Somehow, this made them bitter toward Lelaina, as if it were her fault that he was gay. She was subject to a little teasing, a little belittling, but generally let it fly over her head. When she was forced to go into school, she just... got on with it.

However, sometimes the comparisons couldn't be ignored. Especially from her mother.

This Friday night in question, which in future Lelaina supposed she would dub 'The Big Switch-a-roo' or something just as corny, she was set for an engagement in a bar downtown. To make it a little easier on her family, Lelaina did a wondrous job of _pretending_ she had friends. The lies and the fake names, they just rolled off her tongue. But what she was really doing when she was supposed to be 'grabbing a snack with her girlfriends' was examining the wildlife that was nightlife in Lima, Ohio.

Naturally, she was disappointed – it wasn't the kind of town that really came alive at night. Just drunk teenagers and dive bars. Such dive bars, however, gave way to her stumbling into an open mic session one stormy night. Next thing she knew, Lelaina had been getting calls to do semi-regular bar gigs with a semi-talented backing band.

Her parents wouldn't approve if they knew, and Blaine was sure to tell if he did, so it was her own little secret.

She was like Hannah Montana, but less potentially cracky.

As she returned from Blaine's room, she threw off her Crawford uniform and pulled on a white tank top and a pair of high waisted purple shorts, Lelaina caught her reflection in the mirror. Stepping over to the illuminated reflection, she brushed some hair out of her face. Considering she was the lesser of the two goodies in the family, she figured that she was doing alright for herself.

I mean, she was relatively happy. She couldn't ask for more.

Unlike Blaine... whose puppy-love, she was sure, was going to get him into some kind of trouble. She could ask herself, how could he _possibly_ ask their parents to transfer him for his senior year to a school that turned out more dropouts than graduates when he was in one of the top rated schools in Ohio?

Knowing Blaine, he'd get his way. If he didn't, they'd never live it down.

Exhaling heavily, she grabbed a bottle of foundation from her dressing table and dabbed a little on her t-zone. A dash of eyeliner later, and she was good to go.

"Blaine!" she called, stomping down the hallway to his room, "Come on, shake your damn tailfeather! This lady has places to be!"

Hammering on his door several times, Lelaina only stopped when it swung open partly due to the force.

"Look, Kurt, I... I don't know, she doesn't think it's that _important_? And maybe it is kind of a ridiculous step, I mean, we can make time for each other, right?" Blaine was whispering into the phone – voice shaking.

Lelaina froze, her hand in midair. She silently stepped out of the view of the doorway. She didn't like the way his voice sounded – not at all.

"No! No," Blaine hissed in exclamation, "Don't do this to me, Kurt, please... I've got enough on my mind as it is. No, I do think it's worth the effort! I just don't think my parents would appreciate... No! That's not what I meant... Please. Kurt? _Kurt_!"

Lelaina's top teeth clamped down on her bottom lip. She guessed that from Blaine's exasperated moan that Kurt had hung up on him, and that the conversation that preceded such a dramatic action was not one of the most pleasant they'd ever had.

"Blaine?" she said quietly, poking her head around the door frame, "Everything ok-"

"Jesus, Laina, just give me a second!" he yelled from inside the bedroom, causing her to jump.

Lelaina did the thoughtful thing and didn't bother him any further. Setting off down the cream carpeted stairs, she considered the situation at hand. From what she could piece from the snippets she heard, Kurt was getting almost clingy about Blaine transferring. So, this wasn't a one-sided thing. This was a plot.

Lelaina had only met Kurt once, and it was a very brief 'hi how are you' ordeal. It seemed that, even though Blaine was so serious as to transfer to another school for this kid, he still wasn't confident in his admittedly open-minded sister meeting him. That set a tone of sketchiness as far as Lelaina was concerned. She only hoped he wasn't as bad as her judgement was allowing him to be.

As she hit the bottom step, she heard the unmistakably gruff tone of her father emitting the famous words, "Take a jacket."

"Before you go anywhere, take a jacket," they said in unison, as Lelaina had heard the very same words a thousand times before. Plucking her mock letterman jacket in vibrant yellow and black from the coat rack in the hallway, she considered how Blaine's asking to transfer would go down.

By the look of their father's dark furrowed brow, it wouldn't happen so splendidly tonight. She would warn him, if she didn't think that Blaine would absolutely murder her over it.

Instead, Lelaina walked over to the computer chair where her father sat, squinting at some squiggly charts on Microsoft Excel.

"What if," she said, "hypothetically, I were in Siberia, where the weather would be so unbelievably hot that if I were to take a jacket I would a, die from wearing it or b, die from having that great weight on my arm, dragging my fine self down in such hellish heat? Would you still tell me to take a jacket, Pa?"

"Always," her dad said simply. He was a man of little words.

Lelaina nodded. "Understandable," she said, "At least you're consistent. Where's Mom?"

"Out."

"How mysterious."

"Shopping. Or something."

"Ah," she said, hearing footsteps pounding down the stairs. Blaine jumped off the last few steps. "Alright, well, I'm going out. I'll be back at a reasonably sane time."

"Are you going too?" the question was obviously directed toward Blaine.

"_You_ has a name," Blaine responded somewhat snappily.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Lelaina stepped in between them, "No need for any of that. C'mon."

Blaine, dressed in scruffy old jeans and a CBGB shirt, slammed the door rather violently behind them. Lelaina head the mail slot's little metal door rattle from the sheer force.

"Blaine!" she scolded, "Just... don't. I know you're angry, but don't."

Yanking open the driver's door of his Clio, he replied, "And how would you know that? Eavesdropping outside my door again?"

"You know I can't say without saying yes," Lelaina said, sliding in the passenger door, "but yes. Pretty much. I mean... what's going on?"

"Just... a rough patch."

Little lights on the dashboard shone as he stuck the key into ignition. Only then did she realise he had tears in his eyes.

It's a hard thing, to see your older brother on the verge of crying. Especially in Lelaina's case. She felt that if she tried to sympathise with him, he'd shoot her down and claim she 'didn't know what it was like' because she was 'normal'. No matter how she'd try and tell him the truth, that he was just as normal, if not more, as she was, he'd just become more and more upset. And what added to it was the fact she was his little sister – it was demeaning to him, in a very tribal sense.

"He'll get over it," was all Lelaina could manage, in a short whisper.

"And if he doesn't?" Blaine challenged her sharply.

Lelaina's mouth simply flapped open and closed, at a loss of how to respond.

"It'll just be another thing I've _screwed_ up."

From there on in, the car ride to the downtown area was a painfully silent ordeal.

Blaine and Lelaina generally got on quite well – by no means could they be classified as best-friend-siblings, but they could stand each other for the most part. But it was times like this, when there was a problem hanging in the air and neither of them knew how to get sensitive enough to talk it out... that's what made Lelaina's stomach turn, and probably Blaine's too.

Pulling up outside the Landing Strip on Delphos Avenue, Lelaina exhaled heavily, undoing her seatbelt. Popping open her door, she paused. She intended to say something reassuring and meaningful before disappearing for the night.

"Look, just... the toast is always brighter in the morning, okay?"

And that is what she came out with.

Lelaina stood in the doorway of the Strip and watched Blaine speed off. She just hoped he wouldn't do anything stupid.

Taking a deep breath, she shook herself right down to her fingertips. Whatever was going on, she had a policy that she daren't let it bug her onstage. It broke her focus. She was separated there, completely rootless.

Prep and soundcheck was always a huge blur – something that was probably helped by the average number of gin and tonics she was bought before each show, but everything became crisp and clear once she mounted that stage.

The instantly recognisable riff of Chuck Berry's Johnny B Goode rang through the crowded bar and Lelaina pulled the greasy microphone stand toward her like a teasing lover.

"_Deep down Louisiana, close to New Orleans, way back up in the woods among the evergreens,_" the husky purr curled from Lelaina's lips, "_There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood, where lived a country boy named Johnny B Goode._"

This was her stomping ground, and not a living soul knew.


	2. the fall of the gossamer curtain

**chapter two | the fall of the gossamer curtain**

Lelaina's bedroom was more of a haven than anything. It was designed to fit her needs exactly – so much so that she was almost obsessive compulsive about the way it looked. The four walls surrounding were a dark, dark red and she wouldn't allow any posters or frames or nails disturb the deep harmony of the colour. The carpet was cream, like the rest of the carpets in the rest of the rooms, although she had begged to have a black carpet since she was thirteen years old. However, she did get away with having strictly black furniture. If it wasn't black, it had to be painted black.

The bed had dark gossamer curtains flowing all around it, making it such a cosy space that once you were in it, you never wanted to leave. It faced the Hollywood-style dressing table – a mirror surrounded in lightbulbs. Besides that, the wardrobe and a singular bedside locker, the only other piece of furniture in the room was a chrome record player with a large collection of records residing in the bookcase it sat upon.

Lelaina, quite simply, was a minimalist in the bedroom. Interpret that whatever way you will.

Her bedroom did not reflect her dress sense whatsoever, although the two usually went hand in hand. Lelaina was a fan of contrasting the brightest of the bright with the darkest of the dark and adding a strange leopard print in there somewhere. Of course, on her more sultry days she could take a notion to pull out her extensive lace collection from the very, very back of her closet... but not always. She was a statement girl, quite simply.

One of Lelaina's many statements included being picked up after one of her gigs by Blaine and lying silent all the way home in the back seat. The first couple of times she had been discovered that way inebriated, Blaine was worried, so he tried to force conversation with her to keep her conscious. But she was conscious the entire time – his incessant natter became so irritating that she shrieked, "Oh, shut _up_, you glorified yodeller!"

He learned never to speak to her whilst drunk again.

Blaine would dutifully pick Lelaina up after his parents had gone to sleep, and trusted her to be quiet – which she was. Lelaina would trudge up the stairs, her big brother carrying her shoes for her, and then would crawl into the gossamer-surrounded velvet wonderland of her old bed. With her heavy curtains closed and the dark colour of her room blending in with the shade, it was easy for her to sleep late into the next afternoon, and still believe it was nighttime. It was routine by now.

What Lelaina was unaware of was the amount of time an early morning Blaine would spend sitting on the floor beside her bed as she slept, humming softly to her as if to sooth her in her woolgathering rest. This, to Blaine, was the best bonding time he could have with her. These silent moments were close to him. It was all very mushy.

The following afternoon, as the clock ticked toward half past two in the afternoon, Lelaina was awoken by a weight pressing down on the bed beside her.

"Lainey," Blaine whispered, "You should probably wake up now!"

Lelaina groaned, throwing a stuffed wolf at her brother. She had forgotten their drama for a moment.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, "Don't throw things at me. Look, I- I come bearing gifts."

A lazy, kohl-smudged eyelid lifted.

Lelaina blinked once or twice, and from her one-eyed view she could see that Blaine had arranged a breakfast tray of sorts. She closed her eye again in order to gather her thoughts.

Blaine seemed to take this prolonged silence (in which Lelaina had actually fallen asleep again) as a kind of rejection.

"Look, okay, so we've got... toast, with chocolate and peanut butter because I know you have a thing about ordinary toast. And it's got a napkin under it, so you don't need to worry about toast sweat," he said, chuckling a little bit, "We got strawberries and little chunks of watermelon. I went to the store and got you that Starbucks bottled stuff that you like and I put it in a mug with some whipped cream on top because-"

At the mention of 'Starbucks', Lelaina made a very sudden movement into a sitting position on the bed, rubbing her eyes like a child on Christmas morning. As she rubbed them, she felt a massive migraine coming into realisation. Funny, she didn't recall being _that _level of tipsy.

"I have one question," she said, holding a hand over her eyes, "Is there Seltzer?"

"There is Seltzer," Blaine responded, handing her the cool glass of effervescent aspirin, "There are also double-stuffed Oreos."

Lelaina grinned. "Because single-stuffed-"

"-don't never have enough damn cream," they said in unison as she pulled her hands away from her eyes.

"You're a freaking goober," Lelaina said, taking the tray from him so he could settle into the bed next to her, "What's all this fancy fatty breakfast nonsense all about, anyway?"

Blaine shrugged, looking at his fingernails. "It's an apology, I guess."

"An apology for what?" Although she was pretty sure she knew.

He sighed, "I shouldn't have... wacked out like that last night. I shouldn't have dragged you into it. You're probably right, I realised, I probably am taking this too seriously."

Lelaina, again, was at a loss at what to say. She could sniff him trying to get all soft on her – hell, look at this feast! – but she just couldn't settle into it that way. She simply patted Blaine on the arm and said, "It's okay."

"I was thinking we should spend more time together," he continued, "Just... you and me. It could be fun, right?"

_Please don't be a try-hard, Blaine, _Lelaina thought, _For the love of your pride and general wellbeing, please._

But in reality, she only nodded stiffly. Picking a piece of cubed watermelon from the bowl, she popped it in her mouth and chewed slowly, waiting for him to continue. It sounded like he was going to continue.

He didn't.

"How was last night?" Blaine asked, only to fill the silence, yet Lelaina almost choked on her melon.

"Oh, fine!" she said over-enthusiastically and thickly, proceeding to gulp down the rest of the Seltzer to clear her throat.

"You always sort of gravitate toward the Strip," he went on, "Why's that? Cute guys? Rocker guys? You like rocker guys, right?"

Lelaina shook her head, silently. He was being a try-hard. He stunk of trying hard to try hard.

"Blaine, look," she said, struggling for the words to fully illustrate what she was trying to get across – essentially, _I've suffered this dumb BFF brother-sister crap for a whole two minutes and I'm already feeling thoroughly nauseous, so this isn't going to work. _

"Quit being a sap," she finally arrived to. Surprisingly, he looked relieved.

"I had a feeling you wouldn't be able to stand that."

"Hmm, you know me better than I thought."

Picking up a piece of toast, Blaine grinned, "Listen though, I need to ask you something kind of serious."

"You need to quit grinning like clunge."

"And you have to _promise_ not to be mad," he said as he chewed the great big bite of toast.

"You have to stop spraying backwash crumbs all over my duvet."

Finishing off the toast and taking another, Blaine said, "Do you wanna know what it is?"

"I feel like I'm in LOST," Lelaina sighed, sticking her finger in the empty glass and swabbing up the remaining Seltzer powder.

She wasn't watching, but it sounded like Blaine took a really deep breath before saying, quite hurriedly, "I need you tell Mom and Dad you wanna transfer to McKinley."

The glass slowly slid away from Lelaina's hand and onto the duvet, half-dissolved Seltzer dripping onto the velvet.

"I _what_?" she said slowly, "I _what_?"

"You said you wouldn't be mad, eat your food," Blaine said in the same rushed breath.

But Lelaina wasn't having it – she shook her head violently, still trying to process the idea of _why the hell _Blaine would ask her to do his dirty work for him.

"But- wh- I don't get it! Why me?" she whined.

Blaine gestured for her to keep her voice down.

"I'm not doing it," Lelaina said, shaking her head in that seizure-like manner again, "Don't even try and sway me, I'm not doing it. If you want to go so badly, go. Leave me... alone."

"Lainey-"

"I'm serious," she continued, voice becoming more and more frantic, "I'm so serious, Blaine, don't even try any of that crap on me."

"Lelaina-"

"This was what the goddamn breakfast was for and everything? Well, that's frickin' _fine_, but next time you want someone to do you something, don't try and butter them up with frappucinos and make it sound like _family bonding time_."

"Lelaina, seriously st-"

"I mean, that's just crooked," Lelaina went on, stepping out of the bed and standing so her figure was immersed in the gossamer curtains. She held her arms crossed tight over her chest, still shaking her head like a raccoon that was about to start foaming at the mouth, "That's just straight up _wrong_. Next thing I know you'll be bribing prostitutes to become mules for some kind of illegal sheet music distribution business you'll s-"

"LELAINA, WILL YOU PLEASE SHUT YOUR GODDAMN MOUTH, YOU SOUND LIKE A _CRAZY_ PERSON!"

The volume of Blaine's yell caused her to jump a good ten inches backwards, dragging her beloved curtain with her. Lelaina hit the ground with a dull _thump_, to which Blaine ran to see if she was alright. Jerking her hand away from him as he tried to help her up, she grimaced.

"Alright, stuffy."

Regaining her composure (somewhat), she found Blaine's hands coming to rest on her shoulders as he looked directly into her eyes.

"Lainey," he said softly, "look. I know... you have no friends at Crawford."

"That's a dirty lie," she quietly and weakly protested.

"No it isn't," Blaine dismissed, "which is why it would be far more convincing if you were to ask Mom and Dad to transfer to McKinley."

Walking back toward the bed, Lelaina considered that.

Pivoting, she regarded her elder brother with slit eyes.

"How did you figure I was a lone ranger?"

"I'm Blaine Anderson," he scoffed.

"Asshole," Lelaina replied simply, sitting down and picking up an Oreo. Twisting it open, she asked, "Well, if _I _play the victim, how does that ensure your moving to public school paradise?"

Blaine knitted his fingers together and shrugged innocently.

"That's when I get to play concerned older brother."

"They'll figure it out, Blaine," she said through a mouthful of Oreo cream, "Plus, Dad will never go for it. Especially if it's as trivial a problem as, '_Ugh, boohoo, I have no dumbass friends to go to Mello-Creme with.'_"

Glancing upwards as she slid the bare biscuit half of the Oreo in her mouth, Lelaina noticed Blaine was regarding her with a look that spoke volumes of, '_Having no one to go to Mello-Creme with really isn't a problem for you? I'm shocked.'_

"My dear sister, you really don't realise how much a Daddy's girl you are, do you?" he laughed.

"Dude, shut up. That's creepy."

Blaine grinned, "I'm serious. Tell him you want to transfer to McKinley and he'll probably just tell you to take a jacket."

_You may be right._

She hated to admit it, but Blaine's plot was sort of getting to her. She was only a sophomore, and she was compadre-less for the most part. A fresh start couldn't _really_ hurt... could it?

Maybe... getting out of that comfort zone of anonymity would be a good thing. Maybe she could finally figure out her niche in the whole scheme of things.

Getting up from the bed again, Lelaina passed Blaine and went over to the window. Fingers curling around the thick material of the curtains, she said, "Damn it all. I'll talk to them later."

She could hear Blaine hiss a victorious, "_Yesss!_" from behind her, as she pulled the curtains apart swiftly and was greeted by the blinding mid-afternoon sunlight.

"Aah, motherf-!"

"... but, honey, why McKinley?"

Lelaina, nor Blaine, had mentally prepared themselves for the intense effort convincing their parents that she _needed _to transfer to McKinley required. In their innocent desperation, they had collectively fabricated a Mean Girls-esque story in which Lelaina had become victim to Crawford's in-crowd.

"I've been made a public fool!" she exclaimed most dramatically, "The alcohol, the drugs, the... debauchery. I can't go back there. I physically _can't_!"

At which Blaine shot her a look that said, _Enough with the Meryl Streep impression._

Their parents were somewhat confused, however.

"Well," said their mother, the kinder and sweeter of the two, "maybe we can go in and have a talk with your principal. I mean, I hardly think that something like _this_ should cause you to transfer schools..."

Lelaina's timing was perfect. Her face crumpled and she slumped over on the marble counter, shoulders shaking in a silent faux-sob.

"_Nnneehhhh_!" she groaned in protest. Blaine dashed forward, resting both hands on her shivering shoulders.

"Mom, Dad," Blaine said, using his most responsible sounding voice, "I know it's somewhat inconvenient. But you know how these private schools can be... once the mothers of these girls find out, they'll hold it against all of us until Laina graduates. They're no better than their daughters. Lelaina has expressed to me that... she'd like to transfer to McKinley."

Lelaina, facedown on the countertop, could almost hear the dull sound of her parents blinking wordlessly at Blaine.

"Isn't that where... um..." their father tried, unable to recall Kurt's name.

"Kurt goes there, yes," Blaine nodded, "He's in his senior year. He knows about Lelaina's situation, and... well, we both think that McKinley would be a better environment for her. And hey, you don't have to worry about Crawford tuition fees anymore!"

No one chuckled at Blaine's quip. Lelaina felt his grip tighten on her shoulders, a sign she should probably lift her head. Tracks in her makeup worn from crocodile tears, she blinked innocently at her mother and father.

"I _really_ wanna go," she said thickly.

"And! I was thinking," Blaine piped up, "that I could, perhaps, go with her. To keep an eye on her, y'know?"

Their mother shook her head instantly at this suggestion.

"No, no, no, Blaine," she said, "No, no. You're in your _final year_! I doubt that McKinley's senior education outplays Dalton."

Blaine's face hardened, his jaw became stiff. His dark eyes glazed over with that sulky-teen look he adopted when it didn't look like he was going to get what he wanted.

"Oh, _pleeee-ase_!" Lelaina wailed, coming to the rescue. Now, her father, who had been most peculiarly silent for the duration of this vaudevillian performance, came between the brother and sister. Laying a hand on Blaine's shoulder, he tilted his head close to his son's own.

"Do you really want this?" he asked in his low, almost gruff tone. Lelaina could see Blaine's Adam's apple bob up and down as he swallowed nervously.

Did _he_ really want this? Was the jig really up that quickly?

"For her," their dad finished after the momentary pause, "Do you really want this for her?"

Blaine nodded fluidly, "Yes, yes I do."

Lelaina's fingers curled into her mouth as her father held another pause.

"We always try and give you kids what you want," he said, sitting back down at the kitchen counter, "Your mother and I will talk to the Principal. We'll see what we can do."

With that, he raised his coffee cup to his lips and took a short sip, returning to squinting at the business section of the paper, just as he had when the two siblings came in to talk to him. Their mother stood there with her mouth gaping like a dumbfounded goldfish.

Blaine exhaled audibly behind Lelaina and nudged her.

"Oh! _Thank you_," she whispered and Blaine pulled her by the arm out of the kitchen.

As soon as they were out of earshot of their parents, Blaine broke into a kind of spastic dance that resembled what the Dougie would look like if it was performed by an epileptic dog.

"Good _work_!" he said, planting a kiss on his little sister's cheek. Lelaina was still rubbing the remains of crocodile tears out of her eyes. She nodded dully.

Blaine stared in confusion at her reaction. "What, aren't you happy?" he asked, "This is a whole new start, Lainey!"

She shrugged. "We'll see."

With that, Lelaina trudged back upstairs to her room and picked up the gossamer curtain from the floor. She saw that it was ripped beyond repair. Utterly destroyed. She could feel her eyes welling up – but over such a stupid thing!

_Then again_, she thought, _it is due time for a change._

So, she unclipped the other two curtains from her bed. As they fell to the floor, she felt a jab at her stomach. Looking now, her room felt so much more bare. So much more exposed.

Then again, due time for a change.


	3. to dine with warblers

**chapter three | to dine with warblers**

"YOU AND ME, ALWAYS, AND FOREVER!" Lelaina hollered from the bathroom, mocking falsetto muffled by the toothbrush that was hanging out of her mouth.

It was one in the afternoon on a Tuesday and she was still in her pyjamas. For once, it wasn't the result of one of her more brilliant, "Mommy, I feel sick," ploys. It was because her mother and father were smoothing out the transference details between Dalton and Crawford respectively.

They'd decided it wasn't necessary for either of the kids to attend their last days at school. So, for the second day in a row, Blaine and Lelaina were free agents.

Monday had seen Blaine be shocked into the acceptance that he'd have to abandon his precious Warblers, but in honour of their time together, he'd arranged a celebratory dinner for that Tuesday night.

"Will there be beer at this break-up dinner?" Lelaina had inquired.

"It's not a break-up dinner," Blaine insisted, "And no, there will not be beer. There'll be... Autumn truffles."

"Autumn truffles of beer?"

The Autumn truffles had been Kurt Hummel's most educated idea, who was coming over later on to prepare them.

Lelaina was on the fence about this impending visit. In her mind, Kurt had become quite the villain. An idiotic notion maybe, but piecing together what she knew about the kid, he really was a diva. His way or the highway, et cetera.

But she also had a strong hope that Kurt, the real Kurt, would dispel these notions. You never know – heading into McKinley unarmed, it might not be any harm to keep him in her back pocket.

Blaine moonwalked into the bathroom with his sister to join her for the silly chorus line of the song blaring from the shower radio.

"Ba-baba-baba, and it's always," Blaine sang and Lelaina gargled in unison, "YOU AND ME _AAAAWWWLLWAAAAYS..._"

Blaine chuckled as his sister spat a fountain of foam into the sink.

"Your mood's improved," he commented.

Wiping the toothpaste from her mouth, Lelaina said, "It had to. I've got, like... A new perspective on things, yeah. You're right, it's a new start. Or whatever."

Blaine's smile remained, and his eyes grew brighter. He did seem sincerely delighted at this new state of mind Lelaina had adopted, and it creeped her out a little bit.

Clearing her throat, she asked, "So, what time is Kurt coming over?"

"Should be about... two or something," he said, pulling a length of floss from the box, "What time is it now?"

"Like... one," she said, "Past one."

Blaine's eyes grew twice their regular size and he dropped the floss in the sink.

"Aw, sh-" he said before dashing off to his room.

"Make sure you shower, too," Lelaina called, "Because you stink'ah _desperate_."

Lelaina finally descended the stairs at twenty past two, after having showered and thrown on a cobalt blue sweater over some dark jeans. The sweater was baggy, continually falling off one shoulder. She didn't recall where it came from, as she knew her mother would never buy her something so ill-fitting and she didn't see herself being in a rush to pick it up either. It could have been Blaine's, but it was a little too low in the neckline.

Actually, taking that into consideration, it might have been Blaine's afterall.

Treading down the carpeted steps barefoot and her damp hair twisted in a bun on top of her head, Lelaina saw from the McQueen (or so she assumed) trench coat on the rack in the hallway that Kurt had arrived. It would have been dishonest to say her stomach didn't churn a little.

Tiptoeing into the kitchen, she was greeted with a sight not made for little sisters' eyes.

Kurt was at the kitchen counter, leaning back on his elbows while Blaine's hands were wrapped around his waist. A chocolate truffle was all that separated their lips from full-on macking. It would have been cute, had it not been-

"Awh, you guys are _guh-ross_!" Lelaina called in a mock-lisp.

Her brother stepped away from his boyfriend, cheeks coloured with embarrassment. Lelaina heard an almost-audible giggle come from Kurt's direction. Well, at least she could assume the kid had a sense of humour.

"Like, I'm serious, no macking in the kitchen," she said, walking over to the counter and taking a truffle of her own, "It's not the YMCA."

It was then Kurt erupted in a peal of laughter at Lelaina's joke, though it was somewhat blue of her. She could tell from the dirty look of half-amusement, half-scorn that Blaine was shooting her.

Extending her sallow hand toward Kurt, she said, "I'm Lelaina, since our dearest Blaine hasn't seen fit to introduce us yet."

"Kurt Hummel," he replied rather formally, shaking her hand, "And I've got to say, what a gorgeous shade of blue that is. Seriously. Very Marc Jacobs Autumn/Winter '11."

Lelaina's eyebrows raised in surprise – it was probably a compliment only used to tide her over for the time being, but nonetheless, she was flattered.

"Thank you," she grinned, "I like... your stars."

She was, of course, referring to the sheer shirt Kurt was wearing – an emerald green creation dotted with an array of white stars. Sort of like what Lelaina imagined would happen if the Irish flag were to mate with the American flag.

"Oh, _merci_," Kurt gushed, "It's custom made. I mean, it's impossible to find on-trend men's clothing in Ohio, so..."

Lelaina nodded, sinking her teeth into the chocolate truffle as she surveyed Kurt's outfit... the shirt was tucked into tightly tailored suit pants and secured with a cummerbund in shimmering black satin. Were she to lean forward slightly, she would have seen that he was wearing black winkle picker shoes with a faux (or maybe real) emerald encrusted buckle. His fashion forwardness intrigued her. Though she had been warned of it, she didn't expect him to be _this_ bang on modern trend – or what she assumed was modern trend. Since Lelaina wasn't at all versed in the world of fashion, she would have taken his word as gospel.

"These are damn fine chocolates," she said eventually, the smooth taste of the inner truffle spreading to the very back of her throat.

"Kurt made them," Blaine said, still standing there looking sour at Lelaina's interruption.

At this revelation, Lelaina's jaw dropped.

"What are you, a crossbreed of Anna Wintour and Willy Wonka?" she exclaimed, grabbing Kurt's hand, "Are you _kidding_ me right now, that's insane!"

She shot glaring daggers toward Blaine, "Why haven't you _married_ him yet?"

"Because we still have to make dinner!" Blaine said, throwing his hands in the air.

"Hardly an excuse," Lelaina responded, letting go of Kurt's pale fingers, "What _is_ on the menu tonight?"

Blaine smirked, grabbing a dishcloth from the side of the sink.

"Nothing _you'll_ be eating," he said, smacking Lelaina's ass with the dishcloth and pushing her aside to stand next to Kurt again, "Away with you, heathen, I have onions to dice."

Lelaina yelped and quickly migrated to perch on the small breakfast table directly across from the marble counter. It was only then she took in the chaos that was the kitchen – Tupperware boxes of vegetables she didn't recognise sitting in pools of suspicious looking liquids littered nearly every surface of the kitchen.

"At least tell me what you're serving," she said, picking up a box that sat beside her and sniffing it, "Then I can... _imagine_ I'm eating it, while I starve."

"Oh, Lelaina, don't be silly," Kurt said, "I'm sure we can squeeze in an extra place setting."

Blaine looked at his boyfriend incredulously, "Are you serious? With _all_ the Warblers coming? There'll be no room left in the house!"

"I hate to break your heart, Blaine," he sighed, "but _all_ the Warblers are not going to turn up. Trust me. They'll probably be drowned in SAT prep by tonight, anyway."

"Ha!" Lelaina cackled victoriously, "Look, if it makes it any easier on you, let me borrow one of their Dalton uniforms and I'll pretend to be... Westerfield, or whatever."

Twirling a black handled knife in his hand, Blaine said, "It's _Wes_. And he'll turn up. Trust me. If he knows you're..."

Blaine suddenly became silent, a look of self-scorn coming across his face. It seemed he had said too much. Lelaina's eyes narrowed.

"If he knows you're what? If he knows _I'm_ what? Blaine..."

"Yeah, Blaine, if he knows she's what?" Kurt challenged along with her.

Blaine's eyes shifted from Lelaina to Kurt in a state of utmost discomfort.

"He..."

"Yes?" Kurt prompted, grin teetering at the corners of his mouth.

"He sort of..."

"Mm-hm?" Lelaina nodded, pulling herself to the very edge of the table.

"He kinda-"

"Just, any time this year, Blaine," Lelaina said.

"Alright! He sort of has a crush on you, okay, but I didn't want to tell you because it's completely-"

"-disgusting!" Lelaina and Blaine chorused, identical grimaces on their faces.

With that, Kurt began to laugh hysterical, so much so he nearly doubled over. Lelaina sat with fingers curled over the edge of the table, trying to prevent from vomiting and Blaine just looked uncomfortable. Again.

The idea that one of Blaine's Warbler familiars had a crush on her was just so repulsive... _Wes_, no less. Wasn't he the head of everything, or something? What interest would he have in her? And besides –

"Doesn't he have a girlfriend?" she asked.

Blaine nodded, "But, you remember that night a bunch of the guys came over?"

Lelaina shrugged, "I think so..."

"Day after, he broke up with her," he said, "He wouldn't stop asking about you the next day."

Lelaina shuddered dramatically, "That's just... that is so gross. That is just so obtusely gross."

Kurt, however, was still laughing like a madman, struggling to keep himself upward, just howling.

"What's so funny?" Blaine asked.

"I just... I _swore_," Kurt choked, "that he was _this close _to coming out of the closet! I _swore _he had his eyes on you, oh my _God_!"

At the thought of it, Lelaina snorted, but when she caught Blaine's expression, halfway between shocked and completely revolted, she let out an involuntary, "Haha_haaaa_!"

It took a few more minutes until Blaine had calmed his sister and his boyfriend down so they weren't at risk of a coronary due to the amount of laughing they were doing.

"Alright, you," he said, pointing to Lelaina, "_Out_. And you, Kurt, you show me how to dice these damn onions so they're not the size of my fist. Come on, we have an evening to prepare!"

Some deal of time later, Lelaina found herself sprawled on the sofa in front of the family's flatscreen. Colouring the plasma in front of her was the unmistakably plastic-looking face of Kim Kardashian, along with a thousand camera flashes per minute.

Lelaina recalled falling asleep at some point during a re-run of Dawson's Creek and this was the first thing she woke up to. Rubbing her eyes and sitting up slightly, she tried hard to focus on what was going on, but all she could see was glitz and fake tan.

The soft click of heels on wood was heard, and Kurt appeared in the doorway of the living room.

"Ugh," he said – Lelaina supposed it was in reference to the coverage of the Kardashian-Humphries nuptials that was being shown on E!, "Her headpiece is too tragic... It's so, 'Look at me! Look at my cat-face!'"

Lelaina couldn't help but emit a high giggle. Sitting up fully, she turned her head to see that Kurt was regarding her with a bit of a concerned look.

"Oh, God, I'm not that much of a coyote, am I?" she said.

"May I sit down?" Kurt asked.

Lelaina nodded, gesturing to the plush black armchair to the left of her.

She noticed that when Kurt sat down, he did so in a manner that was graceful and delicate – his silent reservation reminded her of the Queen Mother, which only awarded him more respect and a self-employed requirement of better decorum on Lelaina's part. So, she sat up a little straighter.

"So, Blaine happened to mention to me your situation at Crawford," Kurt said. His eyes were soft, kind. Understanding.

Lelaina nodded stiffly. "Yes, and?"

He sighed heavily, "I know there's probably nothing I can say that'll convince you I understand, but I _do_ understand. And you need to believe me, and Blaine, when we say that McKinley isn't just a solution that revolves around our relationship anymore. It's about you, too."

"I never heard those words come from his mouth," she muttered, sounding more bitter than intended.

"You know what he's like, Lelaina," Kurt smiled, "He's not good at that sort of thing. He's not confident in... communicating with you like that, you know? But really. Trust me. This whole thing is not just him stealing away to... well, you know. It's really more of a-"

"Fresh start, I know," Lelaina cut in, straining to prevent herself from rolling her eyes, "Kurt, I really don't mean to be rude, but I am so sick of having this conversation. Especially since the cause of this whole thing is..."

A blatant lie?

Somehow, Kurt seemed to understand that. Locking his gaze in hers, he nodded in a moment of silent agreement before his eyes slipped, surveying the rest of her form.

"Come on," he said, standing up and reaching out for her hand.

"Wh..."

"We have to get you dressed for dinner!"

Kurt led Lelaina by the hand up to her room – still a mystery to her how he knew where it was.

"I thought I wasn't a part of this soiree!" Lelaina protested, "I thought I had to starve in my bedroom like the rest of the servants!"

"Not on my watch!" Kurt chirped, throwing open the doors of her wardrobe, "You, my scintillating Cinderella, are too much fun to hide away. Put on a record. Let's get crackin'."

Needle lay down on the turntable and the whimsical opening chords of Thieves by She & Him filled the room. Kurt turned his head from rifling through Lelaina's clothes to grin.

"I knew you were a little alternative," he said, "Now, I see a lot of colour in here... though you wouldn't have guessed that from the room..."

"I'm an inwardly colourful person, what can I say," Lelaina chuckled, crossing her arms over her chest in mock defence.

"Well, I could tell _that_ right off the bat... but tonight, we're going to want something a little more sexy. Note this; sexy, not slutty. Ladylike, not aged. Minimalistic, but not-"

"Simplistic?" Lelaina suggested.

"_Bravissimo_!" Kurt applauded, "Now, permission to rummage?"

"Granted," she shrugged and a squeal of delight flew from Kurt's lips as he dived into her wardrobe.

With his head in buried in clothes, Lelaina could barely make out Kurt saying, "Now, I don't do this for just anyone. So consider yourself special!"

"Oh, I do! Especially given how strange the circumstance is; I mean, I before this I would have never imagined anyone would be dressing me for a potential Warble-date," Lelaina said somewhat sarcastically, though Kurt laughed.

Mere moments later, Kurt emerged with a shriek of sorts, "Ah! Ah! This is it, this is _perfect_."

In his hands he held a chiffon shift dress in a regal shade of purple, the neckline beaded with rosary upon rosary of gunmetal beads. Lelaina didn't even recognise the garment.

Stepping forward and fingering the hem of the dress, she said, "Well, this is a discovery."

Kurt threw it toward her, saying, "Put it on! I have to find some shoes."

Lelaina did as she was told. Slipping on the simple dress, even she had to admit she looked pretty good in it. The shade bounced perfectly off her barely-tanned skin tone and the floaty structure complimented her small bust. The only problem was that the dress was obviously fashioned for a taller woman – Lelaina's five foot three stature had the hemline stopping just below her knees.

Just as the thought crossed her mind, Kurt appeared with a pair of statuesque sling back heels in black, a last-minute buy from about three years ago. They'd barely been worn, as Lelaina tended to favour boots.

She didn't need to be told – she took the shoes from Kurt and slipped them on, instantly feeling better about the composition of the outfit.

"Now, the hair... I think, just leave it loose," he mused, looking at her in the mirror, "Hell, just leave the whole thing loose. Maybe some eyeliner, though..."

About fifteen minutes later, Blaine's voice was heard from downstairs.

"Kurt? You up there? Come on, everyone'll be here any minute."

"Alright," Kurt said, placing both hands on Lelaina's shoulders, "Time to go."

With baby deer legs, Lelaina descended the stairs with Kurt following close behind. The little kohl eyeliner had been strategically applied to make her dark brown eyes glimmer under her heavy lashes. Purple chiffon flapping softly around her bare legs, she felt... Ridiculous, really.

"Wow," Blaine smiled, "You look pretty."

"Always the tone of surpri- _OW_! Balls!"

Lelaina had performed the rather idiotic trick of jumping off the last few steps, thus leading her to crack her ankle in her towering heels.

"Oh, God, are you okay?" Blaine said, both he and Kurt running to her aid.

"_Always the tone of surprise_," she winced, straightening up. "I'm fine," she added, though her eyes were watering.

"Let's just pray that's not a preview of the evening," Kurt murmured.

Despite the last-minute and previously unwanted addition of Lelaina to the dinner party, everything was going quite well. As expected, all of the Warblers were very reserved gentlemen, though Lelaina suspected some of them to be falsely so. She'd been guilty of shooting a few attendees (all of which who had turned up in their Dalton uniforms) the scrutinising look of, '_I know you're the kind of person who'd hit on a girl if she picked up a Hitchcock Collection in Blockbuster, and you wouldn't be talking about taking her out to dinner._'

She had also been subject to thoroughly unwanted attention from one Wes Warbler, all of which she put down to the fault of Kurt's dressing her. Unbeknownst to Lelaina, it wasn't just Wes who was gazing at her when her head was turned – it was the majority of the dinner guests. They had seen Blaine's little sister before, but not like this. It kind of pulled the spotlight away from the man of the hour and more toward his sibling, which is not something he would be having.

"Gentlemen," Blaine said, standing at the head of the dining room table and calling his audience to attention with a sharp tapping of his fork to his half-filled glass of sparkling wine, or as Lelaina had described it, 'glorified gripe-water'.

"This is not a farewell party. This is not a goodbye. This is not a... _break-up dinner_," he said, staring somewhat pointedly at Lelaina, who smiled, "This is simply a night we've used to reminisce on our great memories as a team. As the Warblers. And no matter what school I may attend, what uniform I may wear or not wear, I will always be a Warbler at heart... And to prove that to you, I'd like offer you something that comes directly from that place. So, if you'll all follow me into the living room..."

Everyone sitting down rose to follow Blaine. The vast expanse didn't only accommodate a plasma screen and a four piece suite, but a piano too.

Clearing his throat, Blaine approached the shimmering black instrument and sat down.

Gentle chords of a song Lelaina didn't recognised filled the air, and Blaine's little audience was serenaded with a bittersweet song of letting go and new beginnings. Basic stuff, Lelaina couldn't help but feel, but charming all the same. A round of applause was given a moment after Blaine reached the coda of the song in order for the surrounding peoples to absorb what they'd just witness.

"Do you think he wrote that?" Lelaina asked Kurt, who was standing next to her.

"It wouldn't surprise me," Kurt admitted, "But if that's so, it's obviously not one of his more epic compositions."

Lelaina grinned – she and Kurt's escalating like-mindedness was increasingly amusing to her.

Soon, all the little Warblers flew away to their own homes, their own beds and their own SAT preps. Kurt was obviously the last to leave. Lelaina had gone upstairs to prepare for bed before he did, but as she was coming back down to bid him goodnight, she overheard Blaine and Kurt exchanging hushed words.

"... I'm just so relieved she doesn't think I'm some kind of brother-stealing ogre," she heard Kurt say.

"No, I think she really likes you," Blaine said, before his voice turned even softer, "But, not as much as I like you..."

Lelaina grimaced, a childish given.

"I'm just so happy everything has worked out like it has," Kurt gushed, "And I can't wait to walk down that hallway with you. Hand in hand. Like it should be."

"You guys are my OTP," Lelaina couldn't help but interject from the top of the stairs.

"Lainey, go to bed!" Blaine laughed.

"Trust me, you're gonna need rest and prep for what you're in for!" Kurt added.

Her head popping into Kurt and Blaine's view, she asked, "What _am_ I in for?"

"Bed. Now," Blaine said, pointing up at her, "I'm showing Kurt out."

"Don't get pregnant."

Returning to her bedroom and flicking on the lights that surrounded her mirror, Lelaina stared at her reflection. She wondered how these people would receive her – the population of McKinley. Would they sneer like the Crawford crew or would they be a shade more accepting? Lelaina decided that it wasn't a matter she could simply leave up to chance. Twisting her long black hair around her fingers, she realised that if a change was needed, it was going to have to be drastic. If she was going to have a fresh start, she was going to have to be a breath of fresh air.

With that thought lingering in mind, she picked up the scissors.

_Snip._


	4. a twentydollar wig

**chapter four | a twenty-dollar wig and a blue tennis skirt**

The younger Anderson awoke to her alarm clock blaring in her ear, a ring so loud it sounded like it was resonating from inside a bucket, and a peculiar itch festering at the back of her head. Eyes shooting open immediately, Lelaina tucked both hands behind her head to scratch the irritated area. Pulling them away again, she almost screamed when little snippets of her long, dark hair were spotted stuck to her fingertips. Then she remembered – she'd hacked most of it off the night before last before retiring to her bed in an annoyed exhaustion. How _short_ she had cut it, however... that she could not entirely recall.

The same had happened the previous morning, and it was sort of becoming like Groundhog Day for her.

Hopping up from where she lay and racing toward the mirror, Lelaina began the same routine she'd performed yesterday and sighed as she surveyed that the length wasn't so bad – still a drastic change, but barely a bob in consideration. Where it had once almost touched her waist, Lelaina's hair now settled just below her shoulders, ends still blunt looking from her half-assed self-administration of a haircut.

Glancing back toward the clock, she groaned audibly as it hit the hour dot of six AM. God almighty – why had she set that damn thing to ring so _early_? And then, just as the remembrance of the haircut had come swimming back to her, the realisation of what a big day ahead of her hit her something like a mental tsunami.

Lelaina exhaled heavily.

"Alright," she said, prepping herself for an out-loud pep talk from herself, "I fully believe... that you can do this. I mean, probably. It's not entirely _un_achievable, this moving to a whole new school, whole new environment business. Unless you screw it up. Unless you let your mouth run loose... which you completely tend to do, so you should stop that and-"

"Lelaina," a groggy voice sounded from her doorway. It was Blaine of course, who occupied a room all too close to hers, in her believing.

Lelaina simply turned and stared at him – no apologies for her seemingly crazy crazy-talk.

"Well, my hair's still short," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Blaine slipped her a sympathetic, big brotherly smile as he crossed the room to stand next to her. Lelaina noticed that he still wore a hint of that look he was wearing when she first revealed her drastic new look. Descending the stairs and entering the kitchen for breakfast, her entrance was greeted with Blaine spitting his orange juice all over the kitchen table, soaking the corner of their father's newspaper. After that came a lot of speech-speechy nonsense about how Lelaina would be regretting it in an hour and would want her 'crazy Bianca Jagger mane' back. Throughout the rest of that day, she caught him staring at her with a thoroughly disturbed look contorting his face. Upon asking what was wrong, she received the response, "I just have to keep telling myself it's not as bad as a buzz cut."

"It's a friggin' _haircut_, man."

"Don't pretend! I know how you felt about that Amazonian mess you had going on atop your head. Seriously. This is a statement and I'm freaked because I haven't figured out what it is yet."

It was a little bit of a weird day.

"You nervous?" Blaine asked straight out, eyes all tainted with concern.

"I'm up at six in the morning," Lelaina sighed, sitting down on the bed, "I didn't know this early existed before now."

Her brother sat beside her and Lelaina had to move a little bit. Parting his lips to speak, she had to interrupt him then, too.

"Look, listen," she waved her hands in front of his face to indicate that he should stop trying to speak, "I know you owe me big time, okay, and I know you're probably trying to be concerned and all that jazz, but seriously... Blaine... if we have any more of these weird heart-to-heart talks, I think I'm going to start pooping roosters. I am _so_ not comfortable with this... thing that's sort of established. I don't mean to be-"

"Lainey, I was totally just waiting for your dismissal because I really need to catch that last hour and a half of sleep but yeah, whatever," Blaine said, a glaze of relief coming over his face. Shooting Lelaina a parting grin, he dashed toward the door.

From an outsider's point of view, it might have seemed like their relationship was too dissociate from both angles, but the Andersons were cool. They were on good terms, mostly, and far be it from anyone else to question that. But how it might seem to other people was something that crossed Lelaina's mind a lot.

Shaking the thought away and running to rifle through her records, Lelaina realised she needed something quirky and upbeat to get her in the mood for the day. Regina Spektor seemed the obvious option to her, and in no time at all, seven thirty rolled around. Lelaina was putting the finishing touches to her eyeliner, hair still in a towel turban. She had decided that, outfit-wise, she could either decide to be understated and forgettable or overstated and outrageous. It was her best option to find a steady middle ground between the two, so she wore a loose-fitting grey sweater emblazoned with a sequinned set of lips, stretched in a screaming motion. Along with that, she wore a red and white zebra print skirt that fit closely to the curving line of her hips. Simple red kitten heels cushioned her feet.

It didn't take long for her to realise that she needed to create some great Elizabeth Taylor-esque miracle with the still-in-shock state that was her hair. Retrieving a curling tongs from her mother's room, Lelaina attacked her barnet just after it had been freshly blowdried. The end result was not unlike that of Liz Taylor's elevated seventies roots in the film _X, Y and Zee_, but Lelaina paid no mind. From her own viewpoint, she exuded a certain kind of confidence, or was forced to by the fierceness of her outfit. Luckily, forced confidence was the idea.

She played with her Lucky Charms with more gusto than she put into eating them as she waited for Blaine to come downstairs and drive them off. Their parents had given them the lowdown last night when they'd both returned from their separate stay-spaces – the night of Blaine's dinner party, their mother had stayed with their aunt and their father was away on business. However, they both wrangled a second phone conference with McKinley's principal, Mr. Figgins. Apparently, nothing about the previous 'situation' at either Crawford or Dalton had been mentioned and the transition would be smooth.

_Thank God for that_, was all Lelaina could think. She didn't have the energy to put up such a multi-leveled charade once she actually got into the place, only for a hole to riddle it's way into the dam and then the whole dirty truth would bust out like a great, filthy flood.

"That's quite a colourful ensemble," Blaine said, swaggering into the kitchen with both hands in his... lemon yellow pockets. Black pants, with lemon yellow pocket appliqués applied. Lelaina had to wonder where he found some of his clothes.

"No socks again!" Lelaina responded accusingly, red painted lips curving into a malicious smile. She constantly taunted Blaine about his inability to wear socks with his dress shoes, apart from with his Dalton uniform.

"Socks with the prison garb," Lelaina would say.

"You're gonna get blisters, y'know..."

Blaine looked over her shoulder into her cereal bowl. "Look, you've mashed the shamrocks into oblivion! There better be some of that left..."

Lelaina watched as Blaine busied himself with breakfast, when a question suddenly occurred to her.

"You're asking all the time if I'm nervous about this... whole... new school venture thing," she said, pulling her glass of cranberry juice towards her, "What about you?"

Blaine sighed. "Thought we weren't gonna get into this..."

"Yeah, but... c'mon. I'm... _curious_, or whatever," Lelaina shrugged.

He turned around, a slice of toast in one hand and a knife loaded with butter in the other. His brows knitted together as he contemplated _how_ exactly to answer such a question.

"Well... I guess so," he said, nodding, "But Kurt has said it's a good place. It has it's faults, like anywhere, but it's a good place. And to my own credit, I am a friendly guy... There's no use in going in there being the new guy asshole, y'know? I figure that if I'm nice, I should get it back _somewhat_ in return."

"I like that you're being at least marginally realistic," Lelaina smirked.

Sliding the butter over his toast and taking a bite, Blaine spoke between chews, "What's that s'posed to mean?"

She quirked an eyebrow at her older brother. "You serious? This hasn't even crossed your mind yet?" she asked, "Um, in case you haven't noticed, Blaine, we're private school kids. We come from places with sky high tuition fees, uniforms and where everyone is super nice to each other because they were all raised in the same little bubble as one another. We had the upper hand there, of course, what with the previous public school experience, but you know what I _mean_. We were longer there than we were anywhere else, and that's the big ol' bullseye they're gonna see when we walk through that door. Aren't you just a little bit scared?"

Lelaina hadn't meant for all her theories and fears to fall out in a short little speech like that, but there it was, laid bare and naked on the table – something Blaine could _really_ be concerned about.

She realised she was far too hard on him most of the time, but it seemed ridiculous to her that he still believed in that whole 'be nice to others and they'll be nice to you' charade. Especially in high school.

Naturally, he donned his big brother act and took a seat at the table across from her.

"Lelaina," he said, "Before we walk out that door, I want you to know something. No matter what you say, no matter where we come from and no matter where _you are_, you're safe. And as long as you're as stubborn and strong-willed as you are right now, you'll always _be_ safe. Sure, I'll be here to help you and look out for you but... it's in your hands at the end of it, little sister. And you're just as capable as anyone."

Lelaina was stunned into silence as Blaine smiled a very different kind of smile. Warm, but with a reassurance that was unfamiliar to her. It took a couple of seconds for her to absorb what he had just said, but once she did, she erupted in laughter.

"Oh, cut the mush and get your bookbag, okay?"

"Ohio is a fake beach!" Lelaina exclaimed as she got out of Blaine's car, faced with the harsh sunlight of that pretty Thursday morning. It was dimmed some by the tinted shades of her red Ray Bans, but she still squinted a little.

"I mean, it's too sunny _not_ to wear shades, but it's too cold to wear a tank top or something," she went on as Blaine emerged from the other side of the car wearing similar sunglasses, only his frames were a vibrant pink.

"You're like a hip Pee-wee Herman," Lelaina remarked.

"So, the first place we've got to hit is administration, or reception, or... whatever they call it here," Blaine said, he and his sister walking in time toward the double doors of McKinley. The flock of students that were gradually making their way into the building didn't pass much notice of them – or at least, Lelaina hoped they didn't. All of a sudden, she missed the mundane comfort of her Crawford uniform.

"That all sounds boring, let's just bail now and drive to Wisconsin where no one knows our names," Lelaina said, though she followed Blaine up the front steps regardless.

"Cousin Eddie lives in Wisconsin," Blaine said nonchalantly as he waited for his sister to fall back in step with him. They approached the school secretary's desk with an imbalanced attitude – on Blaine's end, it was all smiles and thank yous and on Lelaina's, it was chewing on the frame of her Ray Bans and avoiding eye contact.

They were ushered in to the guidance counsellor's office, who was going to give them a proper welcome and rundown of the school. She was female, and was already seated primly at her desk when the two arrived.

"Oh! Hello, you must be our new transfers!"

She spoke with a light, refined lilt to her voice that made her sound innocent and wholly approachable albeit little girlish. Her light auburn hair fell in perfect marcelled curls to just about the tops of her shoulders, and she seemed impeccably clean. Not a thread nor a hair out of place. Needless to say, it fascinated Lelaina to the point of rude staring, wherein Blaine had to nudge her forcefully in the ribs.

"Yep!" Lelaina said, more in shocked reaction to the pain that bolted across her ribcage than in an actual attempt to be friendly and open. To double the offence, when the word left her mouth so did the slightly gnawed temple of her Ray Bans... as well as a nice, long string of drool. Slurping and wiping the mess away from her mouth, Lelaina struggled not to giggle at the deeply disgusted way that Blaine was looking at her.

"Dude, it's not like I threatened arson!" she hissed and turned her attention back to the auburn haired guidance counsellor, "New transfers. Yeah, that's us – me, Lelaina and he, Blaine. Anderson."

She nodded, straining a smile as she too looked somewhat disturbed by Lelaina's little mishap.

"I'm Miss Pillsbury, and I'm the guidance counsellor here at McKinley High," she said before handing the Andersons plastic pockets packed with sheets of paper – brochures, by the looks of it. And maps. Miss Pillsbury cleared her throat, "That's, um, that's our little survival guide. The student council compiled it and it's got maps of the building and your personalised timetables. Oh! And a list of all the schoolbooks and things you're gonna need to buy..."

"_Thank_ you, Miss Pillsbury," Blaine gushed. Lelaina side-eyed him with one eyebrow quirked.

"You wanna curtsey now, or somethin'? Seriously," she said, tossing her eyes to the ceiling. Pulling the map of the building from her plastic pocket and examining it, "Is there some kind of 'You Are Here' starting point or are we just livin' on a prayer with this thing?"

"Well," Miss Pillsbury said, "I appointed two tour guides for you two but it seems they... have disappeared!" She followed this statement with a giggle that Blaine engaged in but his sister did not return. The butterflies Lelaina had suffered had subsided by now, but were only replaced by a sincerely dismissive disposition.

"Or..." Miss Pillsbury began again, seeming to spot someone over Lelaina's shoulder, "I think one of them seems to have arrived. Finn, you do know you're late!"

"Sorry, Miss P," said someone behind Lelaina. Looking over her shoulder, she recognised the boy's face but couldn't quite place it. He was kind of common looking, in Lelaina's opinion, so he could have been anyone... admittedly, with his flannel shirt draped over a t-shirt and his friendliness just flowing from him, he had a kind of home-grown cuteness.

"You both know Finn Hudson, I'm sure," Miss Pillsbury said, smiling, "Blaine, he'll show you around... and Finn, if you can find anyone who would show Lelaina around, I'd be really, really grateful."

Finn nodded and grinned at the siblings. It was only then Lelaina realised where she'd seen him before – he was Kurt's step-brother. So _that_ made sense.

Finn led them both out of the guidance counsellor's office and started in a conversational buzz with Blaine that Lelaina opted to tune out of – instead, she started surveying the talent of McKinley. Or, rather, search for it.

Within moments of eye-hawking, Lelaina found that all the kids here had that decidedly Lima tone about them – extraordinarily ordinary, or otherwise trying not to be. But, when they tried not to be, they just faded in with the rest of the crowd. That was, until, she lay eyes on a girl who was a good deal shorter than her and dressed exquisitely... for a Shirley Temple impersonator. Her smile was blinding, all perfect teeth and expensive Christmas present bleaching and her hair shone like a sheet of brunette syrup. No distracting from that Good Ship Lollipop vibe she was giving off, though.

The girl clung to Finn and waved at Blaine, and Lelaina took a moment to half-listen to his introduction.

"And this is my girlfriend, Rachel-" Finn began, but was cut off.

"Finn, we've met a million times," Rachel said. Lelaina saw Blaine stiffen beside her.

_Oh! _Wow, that was a memory she sure knew Blaine didn't want to revisit.

"But who's this?" Rachel asked, sunshiney smile still intact.

"This is my sister, Lelaina," Blaine said, shifting from one foot to the other and avoiding Rachel's gaze.

"Sophomore!" Lelaina intentionally chimed, holding a hand out for Rachel to shake, "Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss... it is Berry, right?"

Rachel beamed even brighter, if that was possible, as they shook hands firmly. Lelaina was the first to slip her hand away and in doing so, she passed out the threesome.

"Think I'll try and navigate this cess pool on my own!" she called back toward her brother and the couple, "Let's see how long it takes before I get-"

_SPLASH!_

The shock was so cold that Lelaina nearly screamed, but managed to hold it in as the bone-chill settled into her skin at a rapid pace, and the syrup burned her eyes. She could feel the dampness gather at the neckline of her sweater and drip down into her bra – little pieces of ice sliding down her face, and her stomach, eventually. She lifted two fingers to wipe some of the slush from one eye in order to peek over her shoulder. Blaine, Finn and Rachel stood there in complete shock, unlike the rest of the hallway where giggles erupted after the triumphant roaring of, "Welcome to the real world, noob!"

"So, uh," Lelaina said as the tension built up on both of her temples and tears welled in her eyes, "Anyone wanna direct me to the ladies, or...?"

She thought she saw Rachel step forward before her arm was grabbed, and Lelaina was swept away by a girl whose silky black hair almost blinded her as she swung it around in her face. In seconds, she was marched into the girls' bathroom and thrown toward the sink.

The student who had helped her set the faucet running and then said, in a most threatening tone, "Look, I'm only helping you out because I had this sort of split-second notion that I might _try_ and garner some good karma this year... but then I realised how stupid that'd be."

"When did you realise that?" Lelaina asked.

"When I opened the bathroom door," the girl said, and gestured toward the running water, "C'mon, I'm not about to sponge-bath your noob ass."

Lelaina set about trying to clean herself up, but the more she glanced at the girl who had helped her, the harder she found it to look away.

As she pulled her make-up from her bag to touch up her ruined face, Lelaina asked, "So, uh... Do I get to know the name of my knight in shining... latext?"

She was referring to the black faux leather jacket that the other girl wore. The girl regarded her with a look of blatant hostility, and Lelaina both regretted her joke and regretted the fact that no one in McKinley seemed to have a freaking sense of humour.

"You'll know soon enough," she said, walking toward the door, "I'm kind of unwillingly notorious."


End file.
